The E Word

Hillary used the E word in her speech today, but she's not all the way out of the race for president:

"Today, as I suspend my campaign, I congratulate him on the victory he has wonand the extraordinary race he has run. I endorse him and throw my full supportbehind him. and I ask all of you to join me in working as hard for Barack Obamaas you have for me."

Yup. That's right. She's only suspended her campaign.I'm at a talk radio conference in New York City today, and one of the panels was asked who they thought would win the election. Of the 7 or 8 talk hosts, 2 of whom were liberals, only one predicted Barack as the winner, and that was super-liberal Thom Hartmann. Some in the audience I talked with speculated that Hillary is convinced that something will come out of Barack's history to upend his campaign - and that's why Hillary is ending her campaign, but not end her candidacy.Meanwhile, it will take some time for the party to unite.

Sixty percent of Clinton supporters said they would vote for Obama, but 17percent said they would vote for Sen. John McCain, the presumptive Republican nominee and Obama's rival in the general election. Nearly one-quarter, 22 percent, said they would not vote at all if Clinton were not the Democrats' nominee.

“I’ve had a front-row seat to his candidacy, and I have seen his strength anddetermination, his grace and his grit,” she said. “We all know this has been a tough fight, but the Democratic Party is a family … we may have started on separate journeys but today our paths have merged, and we’re all heading toward the same destination.”